Pitt Orthopaedists Heal Bones, Joints

In 1953, Pitt recruited Albert Ferguson to reinvigorate the department. Ferguson had helped pioneer use of titanium in joint replacement. His protégé, Freddie Fu—today, chair of sports medicine, head team physician, and professor of health and physical activity at Pitt—became department chair in 1998.

Under Fu, the department has nearly doubled its number of faculty members, adding both clinical faculty and research staff. U.S. News & World Report regularly ranks Pitt among the top 10 hospitals for orthopaedics, and Pitt orthopaedics faculty have earned several Kappa Delta awards for clinical research.

Among the faculty members recruited by Fu have been Constance Chu, who studies cartilage and imaging and has ranked first among surgeons receiving National Institute of Health (NIH) grants, and Rocky Tuan, recruited from the NIH to head orthopaedics research and a new Center for Cellular and Molecular Engineering at Pitt’s McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.